U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,129,978 and 4,498,278 both by Friesen disclose a swath pick-up for a combine harvester which provides a drive for the transverse pick up bars which acts to rotate the bars about a transverse axis to sweep the crop rearwardly the feeder house of the combine while moving the bars longitudinally of the axis.
This arrangement has lead to the design and manufacture of a machine sold under the trade-mark “Rake-up” which has had a long life and is still sold in significant numbers. This is the type of pick-up with which the present invention is concerned.
However it is necessary to increase the capacity of the pick-up to match the intake requirements of the modern combine. Combine capacity is increasing and customers are demanding higher ground speeds.
The option of increasing the ground speed of the pick-up is limited by the stiffness of the bat. Also increasing the length of the bats requires an increase in stiffness of the bat. Increasing the cross-section of the bat is limited by the ability to get a low enough profile to pick the crop up off the ground efficiently.